Evinrude - Opinions and what years (or all to be avoided)

Well, tomorrow is finally the seatrial on Alouette. Fingers crossed.

Thanks for the all the wisdom in this thread. I really appreciate it.
 
If it has an oil reservoir, and if it has sat for a long time, be sure you're not using old oil. Because old oil will "gel" up and become like syrup.

I know because I once bought a used oil injected Johnson that did this.

Just get going and then the alarm would sound.

Took it back to dealer shop and they said "Oops! Sorry! We forgot to change out the old oil." So they changed it and it ran fine after that.
 
Well, it ran like a top. Did a 30 minute run. After dealing with a dead battery on the launch before getting it going. Ran perfect, idled down as nice as a 20 year 2 stroke should. Only brought it up to ~3/4 throttle and 35mph. I have to get used to how it handles. So just the test run and back to the launch to complete the deal. The boat is now snug in my garage, waiting for it's first 'real' day on the water.

I will check out the oil, thanks for that.

It has a bit 'stabilizer' fin thing bolted onto the cavitation plate which I could feel biting in the turns. Not sure I like it there. I might take it off and mount one of those Minn Kota engine mount motors for lake trolling without having to mount a kicker.

Anyhoo, onto the pics. It is in good shape all around, came with all the original manuals etc. I think the wife and little one will enjoy the 'non-fishy' nature of the boat.

glastron 1.jpg
 

Attachments

  • glastron 2.jpg
    glastron 2.jpg
    445.2 KB · Views: 36
  • glastron 3.jpg
    glastron 3.jpg
    293 KB · Views: 34
Well, it ran like a top. Did a 30 minute run. After dealing with a dead battery on the launch before getting it going. Ran perfect, idled down as nice as a 20 year 2 stroke should. Only brought it up to ~3/4 throttle and 35mph. I have to get used to how it handles. So just the test run and back to the launch to complete the deal. The boat is now snug in my garage, waiting for it's first 'real' day on the water.

I will check out the oil, thanks for that.

It has a bit 'stabilizer' fin thing bolted onto the cavitation plate which I could feel biting in the turns. Not sure I like it there. I might take it off and mount one of those Minn Kota engine mount motors for lake trolling without having to mount a kicker.

Anyhoo, onto the pics. It is in good shape all around, came with all the original manuals etc. I think the wife and little one will enjoy the 'non-fishy' nature of the boat.

View attachment 34901


Congrats, your day today is the second best day of boating!
 
It is in awesome shape. I just spend the day really getting in and under it.

The previous owner worked in the marine industry and got the upholstery redone with the white piping. They look seriously looks great in person and in mint condition. Really lends to the retro James Bond era Glastron. I just need some new rivet thingies for the curved bow back rest cushions.

There is a transducer mounted that is half sheered off. There are no screw holes for where the screen may have been mounted though. So I will need to address that. I need to figure out what size of screen to go with as the helm is pretty tight with regards to obscuring the gauges. And still need to get a kicker plate of some sort and figure out how to mount my power scottys etc.
 
Easy way to mount a transducer is to glue a block of plexiglass onto your transom using clear silicone. Pick the spot where you think the ducer will work best and make the plexi a fair bit bigger than the ducer mounting bracket. You should use two plies of plexi so it's thick enough to screw into. Use masking tape to hold it in place overnight while the silicone sets up. Then you can play around with exact location for the ducer without turning your transom into a pincushion. Plexi doesn't compress well, so any screw locations will need a pilot hole.

General info, there were two iterations of the VRO system. The first generation was 1984-85 for most engine sizes, and it had numerous failures related to fuel/oil pump design. 1986 and onward had the revised system with low level and overheat alarms that was far more reliable. The damage was done, however, and oil injection systems in general have been treated with much suspicion by boat owners ever since. The Ficht-injected engines of 1997-99 were the other major problem for OMC outboards and they contributed to the final bankruptcy and sale of the company in 2000.
 
Good info. I glued a piece of cutting board onto the transom of my tin boat that I used to mount a ducer. I will do the same here. Unless, I reuse the existing holes if by some fluke the hole pattern is used on other models. I have no idea the make/model of what was there before. Here is a pic, anyone know if this is lowrance, eagle, humminbird etc? It looks broken off on the bottom as it terminates to a point rather than any type of puck or skimmer. I haven't seen one like this before;

transducer.jpg

And yes, I have reservations of the oil injection. I was reading through the original owner's manual/operation guide. It has a low oil limp mode, and auto shut down feature with alarms if there is an oil problem. But I am skeptical in the real world and may end up taking the system out. The oil in the external reservoir looks good (oil isn't gelled up or anything). I may also just stick with it, making marks with dry erase marker before and after each run, should it be significant enough that the oil level moves down appropriately.

I was actually presently surprised how quiet, smooth and un-smokey it was during my 45 minute sea trial was (after warm up, lol). On par with my 2000 Yamaha 70hp 2 stroke. Perhaps OMC had this 60 degree looper dialed prior to the banko.

For now, I have a portable humminbird unit that has a suction cup tranducer until I figure out what I want and budget for a new unit. It will get me on the water.

I managed to get Scotty rod rail mount adapters to work surprisingly well using two interior grab handles. So I didn't have to drill holes for rod holders (in the short term).

The last thing before I am fishing ready is to get my kicker mount installed. And scotty downrigger plates located then through bolt them.
 
Last edited:
Lol, well there goes the theory of reusing those holes. Lol. Unless I take that out, use that spot and/or repurpose some of the holes for a GPS/Speed enabled fish finder.
 
Just remember that oil injection is designed to vary the amount of oil mix according to engine speed. From mid throttle upward you're getting 50:1, but at idle it's more like 100:1. The aim was to provide improved idling and fewer stalls going in and out of gear, by giving less oil and thus reducing plug fouling. Hence OMC's name for the system: Variable Ratio Oiling (VRO). So your engine will certainly run on premix fuel, but at idle you'll be giving it more oil than it was designed for, so it won't run at its best. The first generation VROs were a problem, but there's probably very few of those left in service. The engine manufacturers will tell you they get a lot less blown engines since they switched to oil injection, operator error killed a lot of outboards in the premix days.
 
My cousin doug is the lead mechanic at lordship. He's been there a long time. 25 yrs at least. I have a 1993 90 hp vro evinrude and he told me to disable the vro. Couple reasons: 1. if the oil pump fails.... no oil..... bad day. And they do. 2. At idle they were too lean and not always 100:1 . So for me I just dump the oil in the tank. I bit smokey on initial start up but that's it. Great motors! Have fun with your new toy!
Viking
 
I was under the impression that there were certain years/models that had the VRO issues. I get that it is probably always better to have it disabled, one less thing to go wrong. But I thought there were specific ones where taking it was a no brainer with a higher liklihood of failure. I've had an oil injection Merc and Yamaha in the past without issues.
 
So it looks like VRO was replaced by VRO-2 and it was much more reliable and efficient. Moot though, my motor doesn't have a VRO, rather, it has the newer OMS, which is an Oil Metering System. From all I have read, it has reputation to be reliable.
 
Nice ! Sounds like you got nothing to worry about then.
Check out lordships' website if you have time. You can browse the parts manuals for all evinrude engines. It's great. Get all your own part numbers.
See you out there! Save some fish for me
 
Last edited:
Lesson learned on the maiden voyage. A fully charged battery may not have enough jam to get this motor to fire.

Accessories, bilge, radio etc all fired up nicely. Charged up battery reading 13.5 volts. Get to the launch, no worky. Go through the somewhat complex starting procedure that these motors have, NOPE. I have no idea what the problem might be, starter, solenoid etc...where to begin. Boats lining up to launch, I'm THAT GUY.

This was on the Tuesday after the long weekend Monday, I pull the boat out of the water and decide to leave my family on the beach to enjoy lunch, while I take a flier and zip from the Lake to Alouete marine. I tell Bernie my predicament, he says its probably the battery. "Come back in an hour". Which I do. New battery installed, old battery out (reading way too few amps to kick this motor over) and off we go. He was busy for sure, but took the time to help us out. Super appreciated.

We were back on the water in no time for some tubing fun. Boat runs fantastic (almost too fast) and quieter than I thought it would be.
 
I recommend a battery load tester to prevent situations like the one Damien found himself in. Merely having a good voltage reading isn't enough, a load tester will quickly tell you if the battery can deliver the current you need to start your motor. It quickly either indicates or eliminates the battery as the source of the problem. $50 for a nice simple analog model at Canadian Tire and it'll last forever.
http://www.canadiantire.ca/en/pdp/motomaster-battery-load-tester-100a-0113003p.html

The other thing that helps isolate electrical problems is a simple set of automotive booster cables. Use them to verify the basics by jumping around battery switch, charge relay, etc and go direct from battery to starter. Connect to the battery and a good ground, then tap the positive terminal of the starter with the booster cable clip. Either the starter turns or it doesn't, go from there. Use similar technique to then check the solenoid operation. The booster cables are primitive, but they quickly eliminate questions about solenoid or starter motor.
 
Good info. And sorry for the old thread bump.

I have had an issue at the last run, what seems to be the 'overheat' solid buzz/alarm. It came on before turning the motor over. I just put the key in and get a constant alarm. The manual says a constant alarm is the overheat warning (low oil is an intermittent alarm). Disconnected the battery as a quick test work around. Didn't work. As soon as I reconnected the battery and put the key in, the constant buzzer comes one.

I guess I need to track down a short or something but don't really know where to start. I was confident on the water as it was peeing water well, that wasn't hot. Temps gauge stayed normal etc. So I stuffed a jacket up behind the dash to stifle the sound.

Looking forward to getting on the water on the next sunny day, but this buzzer is LOUD, lol.
 
My G1 300 had overheat alarm issues.

New impeller could fix it. You may be getting pressure but no volume.
New stats could fix it
The part that fixed mine was pop it valve.....
 
Back
Top